Shiny Book of Oneshots
by Selfire
Summary: Every chapter in this book is a one-shot, with its own summary and plot and whatnot. I disappeared for reasons, but the point is that I'm back. Hooray! Read my stuff! I will be giving out prizes to random reviewers ;) Rated K-T for Ten Men.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, my peeps! I disappeared. It's a really long story... But the point is, I'm back! Enjoy all these horrible one-shots I'm writing, just to get back into habit.**

 _What if SQ Pedalion, kidnapped at the age of twelve by Recruiters, had a best friend? What if his disappearance led said best friend to Me. Benedict? What if, a year after the end of the series, they met again?_

"I'll just stay and watch Constance." Rhonda insisted.

Weekly visits to the prison were still happening, much to Constance's displeasure. The children had given up on weekly visits, only tagging along once a month. They didn't enjoy the sight of Mr. Curtain, and the feeling was _definetely_ mutual.

However, the people they did enjoy seeing were Hertz and Garrote. Hertz and Garrote, two of Mr. Curtain's Ten Men, were two of the only Ten Men truly only in it for the pay. Once that pay stopped, they - as Constance put it - "spit and hissed like a rattler that's pissed" which is to say they became extremely disloyal. Hertz was actually a father now, and being a father he realized the wrong he had done and repented whole-heartedly. Garrote had an adopted daughter, too, one about Reynie's age. Constance was extremely annoyed by the friendliness between the two, afraid it would turn into something more and Reynie would no longer have time for her.

Speaking of Constance, she refused to go to prison with everyone else. When Sticky tried to educate her, she screwed up her face.

 _George Washington, going to Prison..._

 _First President, going to he.._

"Constance!" Number Two said in outrage.

She rolled her eyes and continued with an alternate line. _Going with Kate, with whom he's so smitten..._

Sticky started and plunged his hands into his pockets, looking desperately for a cleaning cloth that wasn't there. Not to be outdone, he rubbed his forehead. He had left the walls to his brain down, he had let Constance see his thoughts, ugh, he was so stupid! If Kate had heard...! But thankfully, she and Reynie were on the other side of the room, talking with Rhonda and Milligan. However, Rhonda's face suddenly turned an orange hue, and Sticky knew she had heard. His knowledge was automatically backed up by fact: the small scholar had read in many places that women were relationship-smarter than men. There was a professional name for that...

"Don't even think about it." Constance groaned, once again reading his mind. "Goodness, your whole brain is a college course!"

Rhonda came over walked over, followed by the other three and Mr. Benedict, who had finally exited his study. "We're ready to go, children!" Mr. Benedict said cheerfully. "Constance, Rhonda is driving today so she can't watch you - therefore, you'll have to come with us. Besides, today is the day everyone else is going."

Constance stuck out her lower lip. "I don't want to." She pouted. "I don't like those stinky Ten Men and Mr. Curtain. Why can't I just be home alone? I have bricks in my room to defend myself, just in case."

Reynie stifled a chuckle. The fourteen-year-old boy didn't look through girl's drawers, but it was a well-known fact that while the compartments were full of bricks, the clothes the child wore were all over the floor, only tidied three times a week during their not-so-secret meetings.

"I'll stay and watch her." Rhonda said.

Mr. Benedict's caring smile turned into a worried, probing gaze. "Rhonda, my dear, you haven't come to these visits for three months now. I ask again, what is bothering you?"

Sticky sighed. This very situation happened every time they would go to visit the bad men and women who had endangered their lives several times. In the end, Rhonda and Constance would stay home.

Rhonda shrugged. "I'm just not in the mood to visit today... Especially not today. Maybe next week?"

After a long staring contest, Mr. Benedict turned away with a heavy sigh. "Come along, children." He said with a heavy heart. "We're going alone today."

After they had left, Rhonda departed to go up to her room. She truly did trust Constance, she really did, but she couldn't go today. She couldn't go and face what was waiting for her at that prison.

She closed the door and watched the clock tick, watching the clock tick by. September 24, 2002. 2:41 PM.

Eight minutes.

She reached out into her dresser drawer and drew out a little red and blue pin. It was a birthday present she had given someone long ago, but they had no doubt forgotten by now. She had taken it back.

Caught up in memories that the little pin contained, she stared into space. Hearing a sharp clanging noise, she jumped as the alarm clock buzzed.

2:49 PM.

"Happy 21st birthday, Sammy." She whispered, placing the pin back in the drawer.

* * *

About two hours had passed since 2:49 PM. Tired out by Constance, it isn't necessary to say that Rhonda was more than ready for the prison visitors to come back. When Constance announced that they were coming down the street, Rhonda was ready to open the door even before the doorbell rang. However, meeting her was a surprise. Mr. Benedict, Number Two, and the children were there - but so was someone else.

"Rhonda. Constance, I hope you don't mind." Mr. Benedict said, suppressing a light laugh, "but it is S.Q's birthday today and I told him he was welcome to celebrate here with the rest of us.

Rhonda paled as the said SQ ambled forward, a lot less clumsy and more able-minded now that Mr. Curtain wasn't using the Whisperer on him anymore.

However, SQ was a lot more sharp. Once glance at Rhonda prompted a blush from both adults.

"Rhonda." He said quietly, offering a hand. Rhonda shook it, hyperventilating.

Constance, who had been staring at Rhonda, gasped in alarm. However, her wide mouth slowly turned into a smirk. "People of the world." She announced dramatically. "If your name isn't Rhonda and SQ, follow me into the kitchen. I'm going to build a fire!" She raced into the kitchen, and everyone except Rhonda and SQ sighed and followed.

The door shut behind them. They were alone.

Cue the awkward silence.

"Erm..." SQ scratched his head.

"So." Rhonda said awkwardly.

SQ sighed. "Do I know you?"

Rhonda stifled a sob. SQ didn't know her. I mean, of course he didn't. Why would he? He hadn't seen her in a year. They hadn't played by the rose bushes.

"The last time we saw each other, you picked me a rose from the rosebush." She reminded him, biting her lip.

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Rosebush." He said, trying to remember. "Rosebush... McKinney lane?"

Rhonda, who had turned away hopelessly, turned again enthusiastically. "Yes! It's me, Rhonda! Do you remember you? You're not just SQ, you know."

"Samuel." He recalled. "Sa..."

"Samuel Quincy Pedalian." Rhonda finished, tears running down her cheeks. "Oh, Sammy, you _remember."_

They embraced.

"Wait, wait." Rhonda widened her eyes. "I have something for you, Sam... Wait here..."

She ran upstairs to her room and grabbed the pin out from her drawer. She was so excited that she forgot to close the drawer.

She stopped, out of breath, in front of Sammy. Reaching upwards, she fastened the pin onto his suit.

"We were best friends." He smiled. "Our birthdays were exactly a week apart."

"We _are_ best friends." She corrected him, grinning.

The door behind them crashed open as the eavesdroppers accidentally opened the door.

"I told you I was going to light a fire!" Constance announced triumphantly. "I played matchmaker."


	2. Chapter 2

**Feel free to review one-shot suggestions! This is a short one. It's the day before Christmas Eve in the beginning.**

 _ **An Unexpected Arrival**_

 _The whole household is excited when Miss Perumal's cousin graces the Benedict's house for Christmas. But with her comes an old friend... An unexpected arrival._

"Mr. _Benedict."_ Reynie huffed impatiently.

The man in question looked up from his stack of papers - which didn't really help, because in his chair the paperwork was taller than he was. He rolled out from behind his desk and folded his hands on his lap. "Yes, Reynie?"

"Amma's cousin is coming for Christmas." Reynie burst out excitedly.

Mr. Benedict seemed excited too. "So it's all settled, then?"

A few days ago, a FaceTime message had come from Miss Perumal's cousin. They had communicated, and now she was coming for Christmas, and bringing a surprise - something Reynie was briefing through right now for Mr. Benedict.

"Well, that's wonderful, then!" Mr. Benedict seemed pleased. "When is she coming?"

"On a plane, tomorrow." Reynie bounced excitedly. Yes, he _was_ fourteen years old and knew as much as a college student - or perhaps even more - but even fourteen-year-old got excited and bounced up and down. "At six in the evening. Oh, and she's deaf. But she can read lips."

"Indeed." Mr. Benedict stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Well, I just happen to know sign language."

Reynie stared at the man before exiting the study.

The house was all a buzz. Kate zipped around hanging decorations and pulling new ones out of her bucket, Reynie and Sticky vacuumed, and Rhonda, Number Two, and the Perumals helped with the cooking, with Moocho of course. The Washingtons, Milligan, and Mrs. Plugg went shopping, and Constance was bribed into cleaning up the upstairs guest room, which was no small task for a four-year-old. Mr. Benedict did paperwork.

Finally came the time when everyone waited anxiously for the taxi to arrive. The children were posted as window guards (Constance watched from upstairs and the other three from downstairs) and the grown-ups did last-minute tasks, like tilting some tinsel slightly to the right. There was a scary moment when half of the lights on the Christmas tree went dark, but it had only been unplugged, which was an easy fix.

The minutes ticked by agonizingly slow, until it was ten minutes after six - while it felt like hours.

Finally, there was a taxi pulling into the driveway. Reynie raced to the door and opened it.

There was a form there, a womanly figure all bundled up in a red coat, a checkered scarf, a simple brown hat, and two suitcases. Then there was a hug as the tall woman with dark hair bended down and embraced the boy that was nearly as tall as she was. Then there was a flurry of hands that Miss Perumal quickly translated out loud for everyone to understand.

"She wants to know where Mr. Benedict is." Miuss Perumal announced. "She has a surprise for him in the taxi."

"I'll get him," Kate said and disappeared down the hallway. "He's probably in his study somewhere." Came a distant call.

The woman, Reynie's aunt, went out to the taxi. Kate being who she was, she and Mr. Benedict were waiting for her and the bag she carried.

Mr. Benedict signed hello to her. The woman smiled and signed something back, but then she reached inside her back and pulled out some blue paper. Beckoning to Mr. Benedict, she unrolled it - it had been rolled like a treasure map, or an old-timey scroll - and showed it to him.

His eyes widened as he studied the blueprint before him, the design uncomfortably familiar - almost as if... In the back of his mind...

"The drill." He finally cried aloud. The woman smiled ruefully and tapped her nose.

"But... No one knew about the drill." Mr. Benedict stroked his chin. "Nobody except..."

The woman tilted her head and smirked at the puzzled expression on his face. _Go on,_ she signed. _Say my name._

"Violet?" He whispered, in shock. But understanding what was happening before it happened, they both tapped their noses at the same time.

 **So, what'd you think? I hoped you like it. Don't forget to review with one-shot ideas!**


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